Athens woman gets 16 years for assaulting police officer

A Clarke County Superior Court judge Thursday sentenced an Athens woman to 16 years in prison for assaulting a police officer as he worked an off-duty security job in a west Athens grocery store.

After a weeklong trial, a jury on Monday found 20-year-old Shekeena Rena Davis guilty of aggravated assault, battery and misdemeanor obstruction of a law enforcement officer for fighting with Athens-Clarke Senior Police Officer Charlie Snyder when the officer tried to detain her for outstanding arrest warrants.

Judge Steve Jones also sentenced Davis to four years of probation.

Snyder was working in his police uniform as an off-duty security guard at Kroger on Alps Road shortly before 7 p.m. Jan. 14 when someone told him Davis was in the store and that she was wanted for felonies, police said.

Davis ran as the officer radioed dispatch to confirm the warrants, and when he caught up to her, Snyder tackled Davis, police said. Both struggled for Snyder's gun after the weapon fell from its holster, police said.

Snyder pushed a release mechanism that dropped the pistol's magazine, police said, then pepper-sprayed Davis, but she continued to resist.

Jurors this week convicted Davis of aggravated assault for picking up Snyder's gun, but reduced a second assault charge, for scratching the officer's face, to misdemeanor battery.

The fight happened a month after another off-duty officer, Athens-Clarke police Sgt. Courtney Gale, was stabbed nearly to death in the same Kroger by a man with a history of mental illness.